Conventional peanut butters consist of a mixture of solid nut particles, liquid peanut oil, and other optional ingredients including flavorants (e.g., a sweetener such as sugar, high fructose corn syrup or honey; and salt), an emulsifier and a stabilizer. A peanut paste is generally prepared by roasting and blanching raw peanut kernels, and then grinding them. The grinding operation breaks the cellular structure of the peanut kernels and liberates oil in which the comminuted nut particles are suspended to form a peanut paste having a pasty and spreadable consistency. The flavorants, emulsifier, stabilizer and other optional ingredients are then added to the peanut paste to provide a peanut butter having a desirable taste and consistency.
Blanching the peanuts removes the peanut skins from the kernels. Conventional peanut butters have typically been prepared from red-skinned peanuts. Red-skinned peanuts were believed to provide superior flavor benefits to peanut butters compared to other types of peanuts. When red-skinned peanuts are used to prepare peanut butter, blanching is necessary to eliminate the bitter taste and speckled appearance associated with the presence of peanut skins in peanut butter (See, for example, Stansbury et al., "The Tannin and Related Pigments in the Red Skins (Testa) of Peanut Kernels", JAOCS, pp. 317-321 (August 1950), herein incorporated by reference) which discloses that tannin, which is present in the skins of red-skinned peanuts, has a characteristic bitter taste).
Unfortunately, blanching peanut kernels is somewhat capital intensive and involves significant raw materials losses which adds additional cost to the production of peanut butters prepared from blanched peanuts. Therefore, it would desirable to be able to make a peanut butter from unblanched peanuts which does not exhibit the detrimental effects to flavor and appearance that are associated with the presence of skins.
It has now been discovered that peanut butters made from unblanched white-skin peanuts have desirable flavor and appearance. Such peanut butters are not bitter and do not have a speckled appearance. Moreover, such peanut butters have good flavor compared to red-skinned peanuts (e.g., they are not bland) and are higher in fiber and lower in calories than peanuts made from red-skinned peanuts.
Conkerton et al. discloses that an acceptable bland-flavored, cream-colored flour can be prepared from unblanched white-skinned peanuts. (See Conkerton et al., "Evaluation of White-Testa Peanut Genotypes for Potential Use as Food Supplements," Peanut Science 5, pp. 75-77 (1978), herein incorporated by reference.) However, the article suggests that peanut butters made from unblanched white-skin peanuts would be undesirably bland. It is surprising, then, that peanut butters having desirable flavor can now be prepared from unblanched white-skin peanuts.
All parts, percentages and ratios used herein are by weight unless otherwise indicated.